ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES

Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.

Interview with Denis Farrell

Denis Farrell, director of Lodestar School of Art, Fulbright Scholar New York Studio School and MFA Painting Yale School of Art.   He has exhibited in New York, US, UK, France and Ireland with museum exhibitions at The Dock and Limerick City Gallery of Art. 

Denis Farrell is represented by Taylor Galleries, Dublin.  

RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of "art" today?

Denis Farrell: Art is the observable metaphor of an artist’s deep love for the time we have in this flawed paradise.

RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself... How does it change and how has it changed us?

Denis: It regenerates in order for that love to be continually relevant to each generation of people . The deeper the love the deeper the connection to the now, not without key ingredients of the art of the past to act as a referee.

RAP: What role does art play today?

Denis: The role it has always played, to express our insatiable hunger for excellence and appreciation through metaphor in paint or poetry, dance or photography, cinema, song, etc. Art changes us if it opens in us a kind of light and direction towards silence.

RAP: What would you recommend to an 'emerging artist' today?

Denis: To be disciplined, true to yourself and trust your intuition. It is not without a little discipline to reach beyond the mundane.

RAP: How have new technologies & media culture changed art today?.. made it better or worse? ...challenges?

Denis: New technologies, new brush.

RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging a work of art; which is the right way to approach a work of art?

Denis: Leave your guns at the door.

RAP: What is the real role of academies and art schools today? What can artists learn from them today?

Denis: To provide a sanctuary for students to fail. Painting, my discipline has a long tradition so painters are best suited to teach the discipline. Academies can be restrictive, with their grip on lauding of established notions of what good painting is. Academic; no longer relevant. Too much reverence of style and not enough failing and flailing in the dim light of the dawning of the new and unfamiliar. Better to get in the ring with the past than on your knees to it. Pray on your day off.

RAP: How do art galleries and museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?

Denis: I go to Art galleries to see my peers, and occasionally exhibit and see if all I’ve done can be left by itself and thrive by itself. I go to museums on that day off to pay homage. I’m too busy to think of positioning and all that noise and clinking of glasses.

RAP: ...will art save us?

Denis: Art will save us if we are truthful in the making, and don’t use it to save ourselves. It doesn’t work like that. It’s not advertising.

@denis.farrell

denisfarrell.ie